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Introduction to American Government classes can benefit from the addition of examples from comparative politics. Presenting students with examples of other democratic systems encourages them to confront the costs and benefits of choices made in the American context. Dealing with these "cognitive conflict" tasks facilitates higher level learning on the part of students. Examples of topics that can be presented comparatively are outlined, and experimental evidence is presented demonstrating that a comparative approach to teaching American Government can lead to improved student learning. (Contains 4 tables and 4 notes.)

The fact that political parties hold competitive nomination contests that require voters to choose among multiple candidates leaves open the possibility that the contest itself could damage the prospects of an eventual nominee. In this study, we employ the American National Election Study panel survey data from the 2008 U.S. presidential election to assess the impact of the Democratic Party nomination process on candidate evaluations and general election vote preference. We find evidence that Barack Obama had greater difficulty uniting his party than his Republican counterpart due to the fact that Clinton voters were slow to coalesce around Obama. These supporters failed to report higher levels of favorability until Clinton conceded the race in the summer, while Huckabee and Romney voters were seen rallying to their party's nominee in the spring. In the end, many Clinton primary voters either abstained from voting in November or crossed over to support the Republican nominee. Keywords: Parties, Elections, Campaigns, Voting Behavior, Public Opinion, Political Parties, Primary Elections, 2008 U.S. Presidential Election, Candidate Selection, Candidate Evaluation. El hecho de que los partidos politicos realicen contiendas de nominaciones competitivas que exijan a los votantes elegir entre multiples candidatos crea la posibilidad de que la contienda en si misma perjudique las expectativas del candidato ganador. En este estudio, empleamos datos de una encuesta de ANES sobre las elecciones presidenciales del 2008 en los Estados Unidos para determinar el impacto del proceso de nominacion presidencial del Partido Democrata en la evaluacion de los candidatos y las preferencias electorales generales. Encontramos evidencia de que Barack Obama tuvo una mayor dificultad unificando su partido que su equivalente Republicano debido a que partidarios de Clinton fueron lentos en sumarse a Obama. Estos partidarios no reportaron altos niveles de apoyo hasta que Clinton confirio la contienda en el verano, mientras que partidarios de Huckabee y Romney se concentraron en el candidato de su partido desde la primavera. Al final, muchos votantes adeptos a Clinton se abstuvieron de votar en noviembre o decidieron apoyar al candidato Republicano., In the United States, presidential elections are the second round of a two-stage selection process that begins months earlier with a series of party primary elections and caucuses. During the [...]

Abstract Introduction to American Politics classes would benefit from the use of examples from non-U.S. countries. These examples provide a contrast to the U.S. material, and create a learning environment [...]

In this article, we tackle the issue of sorting at the metropolitan area by utilizing an alternative methodological approach that permits us to avoid problems plaguing earlier studies. For this analysis, we take two Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) as our test cases: the Houston MSA and the Atlanta MSA. For each metropolitan area, we employ Monte Carlo computer simulations to randomly create a large number of metropolitan 'jurisdictional' groupings. Based upon these Monte Carlos, we are able to estimate the level of jurisdictional homogeneity that is attributable to random chance. The observed levels of sorting, including the increasing homogeneity as populations decrease, are entirely consistent with what one might find if clusters of households were randomly grouped together into municipalities., Introduction For more than a generation, social scientists have argued about the appropriate scale for the organization and governance of metropolitan areas. On one side are advocates of metropolitan consolidation [...]